US-Korea Trade: Why ratify free trade agreement? Jobs, jobs, jobs

Dick Blume/The Post Standard SOUTH KOREAN Ambassador Han Duk-soo (left) tours the Skaneateles Falls factory of medical products maker Welch Allyn Inc. with David Allyn (right), a member of the fourth generation to work in the family business. The ambassador has been barnstorming the United States to promote the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

With more than 14 million Americans still out of work — as many as 500,000 of them in New York state — and the recovery from the Great Recession less than anemic, the argument for ratifying the proposed free trade pact between the United States and South Korea grows stronger by the day.

Proponents of the agreement say it will create jobs in America. And we desperately need jobs.

Han Duk-soo, the Republic of South Korea’s ambassador to the United States, said during a recent visit to Syracuse that the deal would create 70,000 U.S. jobs in manufacturing, 29,000 jobs in agriculture and an unknown number spinning out from Korean investment in U.S. businesses.

A report by the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Trade found the agreement has the potential to create about 280,000 American jobs when fully implemented, though that job growth would be uneven among states and across industries.

And Central New York businesses that already do a brisk trade with South Korea — among them Welch Allyn Inc. (medical equipment), Nixon Gear (gears) and Inficon Inc. (high-tech gas sensors) — are itching to do more.

U.S. goods are at a disadvantage in Korea because of tariffs imposed on U.S. imports — an average 6.6 percent on non-agricultural goods, and as high as 54 percent on agricultural goods, compared with U.S. tariffs on Korean imports of 3.2 percent and 9 percent, respectively. Ending or gradually reducing tariffs will allow U.S. manufacturers and farmers to compete better on price.

The agreement also swings wide the door to 49 million South Korean consumers with a growing appetite for U.S. beef, wine, produce and financial services, among other things. While the U.S. economy has been growing at 1 or 2 percent a year — depressing consumer demand here — they’ve got money to burn in Korea, whose economy grew at a torrid 6 percent last year, and is projected to grow another 4 percent this year.

The Obama administration has worked hard to amend the original 2007 agreement to allay concerns that it would favor Korean automakers. The United Auto Workers union and the three major U.S. automakers now support it.

Obama also wants to link passage of the trade agreement to a renewal of special unemployment benefits for workers who lose their jobs due to foreign trade. Many in Congress — including Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-Onondaga Hill — object to that linkage. While the Trade Adjustment Assistance program is far from perfect, Congress and the administration must find some way to help workers displaced by trade.

The U.S. economy was fundamentally changed by the Great Recession, and a rebound must rely on economic growth outside our borders. Ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement is a step in that direction.

Rather than fear competition engendered by this and other free trade agreements, U.S. businesses must seize the opportunity to raise their game. In this global economy, we can’t afford not to.